The core gameplay of a zelda game imho sits in sword fights. You may have well-tuned many parts of the gameplay, if travelling the overworld cannot provide challenge and room for self-expression, the whole game will fall flat. This is because hunting for treasures, secrets and fulfilling sidequests on NPC request do involve a lot of overworld navigation... and if you strip out all those elements to focus on dugneons, the game turns into some mechanical demonstration of skill that lacks self-involvement and that loses much of the genre's appeal.

Sword fights involve some navigation with the DPAD and use of the ATTACK button at the right time. Compared to the original LoZ (Legend of Zelda, NES) Z:LA's sword slash covers almost three tiles, making many monsters vulnerable to a dominant strategy: approach them one tile below or one tile sideway to slash them without danger. But to get that succesful, you'll have to plan your navigation and use the level elements to trick monsters and trap them. Z:LA's world map features many places with enough alternate paths to make those trap possible, but optional and preferably not too obvious.

The nuance of Zelda sword fights is exacerbated in encounters with guards who also hold a sword. When facing you, they hold their blade such that a usual slash will be deflected and merely slow them down. Unless you move out of your "dominant strategy", you'll be stuck in a deadlock where you have to repell the same guard again and again without inflicting any damage.

A nice alternative is the charged SPIN attack. Not only it is more powerful, but it will allow you to exploit their vulnerable spots before they can turn back and face you again. This is further modulated by the level design: the lack of pathfinding algorithm can be used to your advantage to trap ennemies in corners while you navigate past them.
Surprisingly, this does not work that well in Z:LTTP. First because you face many ennemies that are merely hurt by the SPIN attack. They're not really repelled either and the risk of being too close to them is real. Moreover, other guards nearby are alerted by your SPIN attack, so you'll end up with a tighter fight. Last, keeping your blade charged significantly slow you down while moving. The price to pay for using a SPIN attack becomes much higher, the time window you have for an optimal SPIN is squeezed. It is no longer a mere matter of strategy and anticipation: it requires timing skills, careful observation of the surrounding and knowledge of the hitpoints each variant of the soldiers have to avoid mistakes.

Altogether, Z:LTTP "recommends" that you use your boomerang to freeze soldiers so that you can safely slash them while they're stunned. Even when you'll have bow (limited amno), hookshot (limited angles), fire rod (critically limited amno), you'll stick with the boomerang that offers the best chance of success, but diminishes the feeling of being "the Hero of Courage", avoids any chance to replenish your life meter and makes encounters repetitive and possibly boring. In that regards, the infinite amno of Z:LBW (Link Between Worlds, 3DS) and the ability to use 3 different weapons without navigating through the inventory revisited overworld in a way that you're invited to use diverse ways to dispatch ennemies. You can still go for the safe "boomerang/sword" approach, but if you find that repetitive, the game offers you plenty of alternatives. The overworld map hasn't changed from Z:LTTP as far as fights encounters are concerned, but the fact many locations are tunnel-shaped rather than open space with obstacles is now of lesser impact. The core gameplay has opened beyond sword fights to give more room to guess-what-weapon-works-best. This becomes obvious when you note that rods, bow and hookshot all allow a form of approach/align while charged that was only available to the sword and that 360 degree moves (thanks to the circle pad) will let you extend the conditions where an arrow may be successful.

I noted some years ago the lack of thrill when exploring island of Z:PH (Phantom Hourglass, DS) and the tasteless train sequence of Z:ST (Spirit Tracks). I can now assert that this is due to the fact the use of the core gameplay elements (sword fights) has almost disappeared from those "overworlds". In Z:PH, you no longer have to navigate to fight monsters: they'll come to face you and conveniently pause at attack distance before they tease you with their blades. And for most of them, the time they take to spawn with their perfect animation let you run past them, turning into mostly harmless guys. With stylus controls, Z:PH also had large range for arrows and hookshot, but it is so immediate and responsive that melee fights just turn into a brainless whack-a-rat session, with all the planing and tactical aspects removed while they are truly what allows encounters to remain interesting when you're visiting some place for the second time.

1 comment:

See also http://shmuplations.com/zeldalttp/ : "If you can move diagonally, you’d want to cut diagonally with your sword, too, right? ... But when we tried to put in a diagonal thrust, the controls felt worse, and we ended up using a spin attack instead."

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